Happy 80th Granny!!

Technically, G.G, Grandma Georgia, or just Granny, as she is known, is my mom's mom. This is a picture of her with my dad last summer at a family reunion. Yes, it's a long story, but I loved this picture of her, and it's my most recent! So we'll start with this one!
Grandma has been there with me from the start... (Grandpa Hank holding me. Don't worry, he wasn't much of a smiler! I'm sure he was thrilled). But look at G.G's face...That's the face every grand kid wants to see when their grandparents look at them!

And she has continued to look at me that way through all the most important days of my life! Here are the 3 generations of, what I think are, amazing women! My mom, me, and granny on my wedding day!

I know somewhere are more photos that show a lifetime of this special lady. But since I have very few of those, I wanted to share some of the important, and not so important yet priceless, things my grandma has taught me through the 30 years I've been a part of her life.

*A love of reading! It took me a while to really love it, but now I have a hard time not having something that is on my currently reading or read list.

*how to find beauty in just about everything. If it wasn't for her, I would find the desert-y place in which I live to be a bland colored waste land compared to the western side of Oregon (where she lives) with all it's luscious greenery and colorful plant life everywhere! But alas, she has shown me that there really is a special kind of beauty to most places, even the desert!

*She taught me, by example, that it's ok to just be who you are. In fact, it's even fun to make people wonder a little bit! Mystery isn't a bad thing! For example, she donned a fake nose ring, and overalls if I remember correctly,when we went to New York with my high school drama department! Yah, people wondered...her family mostly! But I suppose less people wonder about such things in a big city like New York!

*She had a big part in the introduction and continuing process of my being able to have more culture in my life. It started with seeing my very first ballet when I was about 4 and continued with other Broadway shows, art exhibits, photography lessons (which I need more of), trying new foods, and the like!

*How to make the best darn blueberry cobbler I have ever tasted! Possibly, the best anyone has ever tasted. I haven't met anyone yet who doesn't like it! It helped that for many years she had several blueberry bushes right outside her back door! There's nothing quite like fresh blueberries!

*How to love on grand kids. Ok so I don't have any yet, but I will someday! I have fond memories of sliding into bed with her and grandpa in the early hours of the morning. My cousins and I (usually me and Jessica), would sneak in to their bedroom and wait for the sign of the bed covers lifting up as the "o.k." to come on in! Then she would slap grandpa on the rear, and say,"Move over Hank!" There would be some grumbling and eventually he would surrender to the unwanted guests, sit up, put on his support hose, get dressed and start his work day! I always loved that time with grandma. I also remember every time she held my hand she would almost rub the skin off the top of my hand from her thumb going back and forth. Now that I have sweet little soft hands in my house I understand the need to do just that! Another thing is that no one has ever been too old to sit on grandma's lap! She loves it, for a short time at least. We're not exactly 30 pounds anymore!

*One of the most important lessons is one on driving. Particularly in Portland or any other large city. The lesson goes like this: anytime you are turning on to a major road or highway, you "Look left and drive like hell!" That has been a priceless lesson and one that I'm sure my state patrolman brother-in-law would completely appreciate! :)

*One more thing about my grandma that I appreciate is her understanding of what is important to each of her different grandchildren. On my wedding day, she presented me with a beautiful blue flower serving tray that was her mother's and the bible with side carrying purse that her traveling preacher father used to own. How I treasure those parts of her and my history! She has given me several things that have given me a link to the past and the people that are a part of who I am. I will always be grateful for her generosity to share those precious bits of history with me...along with all the wonderful stories!

I'm sure if I thought long and hard, I could come up with many more examples, fun stories, and tid bits of knowledge that has been given me by my grandma! But I have, what I lovingly refer to as, "placenta brain" and therefore it takes a lot more energy than I have these days to think at all! Nevermind, trying to think BACK!

~GRANDMA: I wish you a wonderful 80th birthday and many, many more! I Love You!P.S.There is a better gift to follow, it may take a while and you may very well not receive it until your next birthday! But, it will be wonderful! We wish we could be there with you celebrating at the coast! Have fun and get sand in places you would rather not...just for us!!!

Long Overdue DisneyLand Experience

Well hello there! Did you miss me? I'm sorry, I can honestly say I have been dreading this day of catch up. Nevertheless, here I am! Here to provide riveting and heart warming pictures from our Disneyland trip 2 months ago. This picture was actually taken the last day at D-land. We almost forgot about a family pic in front of good ol' Walt with Mickey Mouse and Sleeping Beauty's castle!


We went with our good friends Nathan and Jandi and their 3 adorable kiddies. All of our kids are only a month to four months apart. It makes our lives hanging out together much easier!

Our first day in Cali was actually spent half waiting for our hotel to be ready and the other half freezing our tails off at the beach. It was a relatively nice day, but with the wind blowing, it was not ideal. So, of course, we told our girls," Don't get into the water past your feet. It's too cold and we don't have extra clothes for you!" Then Morgan face plants in the water literally 2 minutes later!

Cute little Rhy was so excited to be at the beach and FINALLY play with her beach toys. But what you can't see in the picture is that she was shivering from head to toe! The entire time! Poor girl.
Our first official day at D-land we kept trying to convince Rhyan that everything wasn't as scary and problematic as she was convinced it was. This was her face for most of the day...

I just liked this pic of Morgs. She was climbing around Tom Sawyer's tree house.

This was Emmie's main goal for the day...Cotton Candy! And for only $5, it's amazing we didn't buy a couple for each of us!!!

Thank goodness Emms was willing to share! Rhyan was very thankful!One thing that sidetracked us quite a bit was our kids' obsession with their autograph books. I will be happy when that won't be a necessity next time we visit. And you'll notice Rhyan is not in a single picture with the characters. But of course, she insisted she get their autographs. So it was usually up to Morgan to make that happen.

While the guys were going over our schedule, I decided to take a quick photo-op of the oldest
kids: Kyler, Morgan, Kinlie and Emmie

Then I had to let them do a goofy face picture. My fave is Emmie's...

Morgan and Emmie posing in a tea cup outside the Mad Hatter

Rhyan was either asleep in her stroller or just refused this ride..can't remember. But that's why it's just Mckay with the older two, which was a theme for our entire trip. I knew it would be!

Waiting patiently in line for Mickey's autograph. I just loved all the character houses. It's exactly the way you would picture it! And everything is so clean and well taken care of!

Does this picture surprise anyone? Morgan-the girl who loves to pretend to be a dog, laying on Pluto's bed inside Mickey's house, with her tongue hanging out!

This is also very fitting. Emmie never misses an opportunity to relax!

Waiting for Minnie's autograph...

I was impressed with all the character's writing ability. Ya know, with not being able to see well and having those huge gloves with 4 slots for 5 fingers!

I loved that Rhyan finally got some courage in this picture. It's just too bad that I'm in the forefront being great with child!

Rhyan L-O-V-E-D Minnie's house! This was in her kitchen...

Goofy with Goofy...Oh, I mean Emmie :)

All the kids except Jandi's youngest wanted a quick pic in this funny toontown car.

We took a picture like this last time, so of course, it was necessary to take another one! Nothing's changed though, he still can't lift it off the ground...

Neither can she... We spent a good amount of time in Toon Town, so we had to get the Hollywood-esque sign shot.

You may be wondering if we actually rode any rides...well sure we did! It's just not as easy to take pictures of all that. Especially when 75% of the rides are in a dark tunnel type situation! We had a blast. Even I did staying behind with the wee ones because neither of them or I could ride some of the more exciting rides. But I knew that would be the case planning this trip. It was more important to me to let each of my kids experience Disneyland at these ages. We'll go again and then I'll be able to do more and it will be fantastic! This is not all...no no. We have more pictures. To be continued...